![]() ![]() Moore received the Dag Hammarskjold Inspiration Award for his work with UNICEF and was named a commander in France's National Order of Arts and Letters in 2008, an award he said was worth "more than an Oscar." That same year he published an autobiography, "My Word Is My Bond," which included details about his work on the Bond films, his friendship with Hepburn, his encounters with Cary Grant, Frank Sinatra, Elizabeth Taylor and other stars, and his health struggles - including a bout with prostate cancer, which he beat. He gave no details, but said it was important to encourage young victims not to feel guilty. "I was molested when I was a child - not seriously - but I didn't tell my mother until I was 16, because I felt that it was something to be ashamed of," he told The Associated Press. In 1996, when his UNICEF job took him to the World Congress Against Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children, he disclosed that he too had been a victim. "I felt small, insignificant and rather ashamed that I had traveled so much making films and ignored what was going on around me," he said in describing how the work had affected him. As Hepburn had, he threw much of his energy into the task. In 1991, Moore became a goodwill ambassador for UNICEF, having been introduced to the role by the late actress Audrey Hepburn. His post-Bond films included such forgettable efforts as "The Quest" with Jean-Claude Van Damme and "Spice World" with the Spice Girls. He continued to work regularly in films after handing over Bond to Timothy Dalton, but never with the same success. And while the Bond of the Ian Fleming novels that the films were based on was generally described as being in his 30s, Moore would stay with the role until he was 57. He would make six more, "The Man With the Golden Gun," ''The Spy Who Loved Me," ''Octopussy," ''Moonraker," ''For Your Eyes Only and "A View to a Kill" over the next 12 years. Three years later, he made his first Bond film, "Live and Let Die." With the company, he co-starred with Tony Curtis in "The Persuaders!" for British television and was involved in producing "A Touch of Class," which won a best-actress Oscar for Glenda Jackson. In 1970, he became managing director for European production for Faberge's Brut Productions. He appeared opposite Elizabeth Taylor in 1954's "The Last Time I Saw Paris" and with Eleanor Parker in "Interrupted Melody" the following year. He played a few small roles in theater and films before his mandatory army duty, then moved to Hollywood in the 1950s. In the 1970s, film critic Vincent Canby would dismiss Moore's acting abilities as having "reduced all human emotions to a series of variations on one gesture, the raising of the right eyebrow."īorn in London, the only child of a policeman, Moore had studied painting before enrolling in the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. Such success followed a Time magazine review of one of his earliest films, 1956's "Diane," in which his performance opposite Lana Turner was dismissed as that of "a lump of English roast beef." By the time the series, which also aired in the United States, ended in 1969, his partnership with its producers had made him a wealthy man. In England, he had a long-running TV hit with "The Saint," playing Simon Templar, the enigmatic action hero who helps put wealthy crooks in jail while absconding with their fortunes. 1950s-60s TV series "Maverick" as Beauregarde Maverick, the English cousin of the Wild West's Maverick brothers, Bret and Bart. He was remembered warmly by fans of the popular U.S. The actor, who came to the role in 1973 after Connery tired of it, had already enjoyed a long career in films and television, albeit with mixed success. While he never eclipsed Sean Connery in the public's eye as the definitive James Bond, Moore did play the role of secret agent 007 in just as many films as Connery did, and he managed to do so while "finding a joke in every situation," according to film critic Rex Reed. So you have to treat the humor outrageously as well." What kind of serious spy is recognized everywhere he goes? It's outrageous. Every bartender in the world offers him martinis that are shaken, not stirred. "I mean, this man is supposed to be a spy and yet, everybody knows he's a spy. "To me, the Bond situations are so ridiculous, so outrageous," he once said. View Gallery: In memoriam: Celebrities who have died ![]()
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